I have an iMac 2013 (10.15.7) that I did a Time Machine backup / Migration to a new Macbook Air M2. Migration was flawless, but I realized afterwards that were some apps that needed to be removed, so started doing so by moving them to the trash. Everything in the Application and Utilities folders went fine. The issue is with 2 that were on the desktop - Minecraft and MyHarmony. Trying to delete or move them to the trash prompts me for a password, and results in "The operation can't be completed because you don't have permission to access some of the items".
I've opened Get Info, checked to make sure neither were Locked (locked and unlocked them to be sure), I've changed the user/group/everyone permissions to and from Read & Write - nothing via the GUI makes them disappear, and all of it looks correct. They were originally Stacked, but I've unstacked them and disabled Stacking.
I have resorted to scorched earth to try to delete these icons (which are actually directories in the Desktop folder for the user). I have gone to terminal, switched to SU, changed permissions to 777 (and other variations), changed ownership to <user>:staff and tried root:wheel, I have checked for and removed ACLs that were attached to them (group:everyone deny delete), "rm -rf" yields a permission issue - nothing works. I was able to to delete the contents of the folders, and the icons on the desktop have gone to a plain white icon with a slash through them (which I assume means I wiped out the extended info that dictates the icon info), but the remaining main folders will not delete.
To make sure I wasn't bumping into Ventura-specific issues, I went back to the original iMac, and did all of the above as well. I even booted the machine to a bootable 10.13 installer, used Disk Utility to unmount and repair both the main and data volumes - there were complaints but both volumes finish successfully. Running repair on both again had the same effect, but the files still were unremovable - though I did not try while booted to the installer media.
Another interesting tidbit is that they can't be moved around on the desktop either - they snap back to their original location if you try. And neither application is listed in the startup/login items that start up when the user logs in either, so I don't think they are locked up due to a process running somewhere (there's nothing under those folders to run anyway).
Anyone have any thoughts on how to remove these icons? I'm a Windows / Mac / Linux guy, and I've never seen a folder this difficult to delete.
Thanks for any suggestions - hopefully one simple one from someone will fix it
Edit: for typos
I've opened Get Info, checked to make sure neither were Locked (locked and unlocked them to be sure), I've changed the user/group/everyone permissions to and from Read & Write - nothing via the GUI makes them disappear, and all of it looks correct. They were originally Stacked, but I've unstacked them and disabled Stacking.
I have resorted to scorched earth to try to delete these icons (which are actually directories in the Desktop folder for the user). I have gone to terminal, switched to SU, changed permissions to 777 (and other variations), changed ownership to <user>:staff and tried root:wheel, I have checked for and removed ACLs that were attached to them (group:everyone deny delete), "rm -rf" yields a permission issue - nothing works. I was able to to delete the contents of the folders, and the icons on the desktop have gone to a plain white icon with a slash through them (which I assume means I wiped out the extended info that dictates the icon info), but the remaining main folders will not delete.
To make sure I wasn't bumping into Ventura-specific issues, I went back to the original iMac, and did all of the above as well. I even booted the machine to a bootable 10.13 installer, used Disk Utility to unmount and repair both the main and data volumes - there were complaints but both volumes finish successfully. Running repair on both again had the same effect, but the files still were unremovable - though I did not try while booted to the installer media.
Another interesting tidbit is that they can't be moved around on the desktop either - they snap back to their original location if you try. And neither application is listed in the startup/login items that start up when the user logs in either, so I don't think they are locked up due to a process running somewhere (there's nothing under those folders to run anyway).
Anyone have any thoughts on how to remove these icons? I'm a Windows / Mac / Linux guy, and I've never seen a folder this difficult to delete.
Thanks for any suggestions - hopefully one simple one from someone will fix it
Edit: for typos
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